Courtesy: Virgil Films/National Geographic/Lockheed Martin/FEI/National Science Foundation
National Geographic officially released its new documentary film Mysteries of the Unseen World this week. The film, which runs barely over the half-hour mark, is just as good a fit for any family’s home collection as it is a science class at any level of education. The film’s aforementioned run time is the central reason that it is such a good fit in both the living room and the classroom. By association, its pacing plays its own role, too. It’s just part of what makes it so worth the watch. Its clear presentation of two separate yet similar topics adds to its enjoyment. For those that might actually have a 3D Blu-ray player and 3D TV will also appreciate the fact that National Geographic has presented the film in both standard 2D and 3D format. Both formats are both Blu-ray presentations, too. So regardless of whether or not audiences have the equipment for a 3D presentation, every viewer will have reason to be happy when they pick up the film in its 2D/3D Blu-ray combo pack. Whether for this reason, for the fact that it clearly separates the topics into two separate segments or for its relatively short run time, audiences will see in the end that there is plenty to like about Mysteries of the Unseen World.
National Geographic’s new documentary Mysteries of the Unseen World is a good fit for the living room and the classroom alike. As a matter of fact, watching through this program, it proves to be a piece that audiences of any age will enjoy whether in the living room or the classroom. That is saying quite a bit. It is just as valuable for a junior high science class as a freshman level college science course. One reason for this vast reach is the program’s run time. Its total run time comes it at just over the half hour mark. To be more precise, its run time comes in at approximately thirty-nine minutes. That time seems to fly by, too even with the amount of information shared through the course of the film’s two segments. That is a credit to those charged with editing and assembling the film. As much information is shared through the course of the program–the wonders of the microscopic world and slow motion photography, and its history and impact–at no one point does it spend too much or too little time on the subjects or their related topics. Speaking of those topics, they are another reason that audiences of all ages will appreciate this film.
The run time and pacing of Mysteries of the Unseen World collectively make this presentation well worth the watch in and of themselves. No time is wasted on either end of the clock covering any of the material presented throughout the course of the film’s thirty-nine minute run time. It’s just part of what makes this documentary feature worth the watch regardless of audiences’ age. The material itself adds even more enjoyment to the program in whole. It examines the world first through the lens of a high-speed camera, showing specific situations both slowed and sped up. Those situations include a balloon being popped, a rose decaying, a glass and pitcher of milk falling and breaking and more. Anyone that remembers Discovery’s short-lived series Time Warp and who might have actually watched it will appreciate this segment. The second segment, which is clearly separated from the first, takes viewers into the microscopic world, introducing viewers to otherwise invisible objects. Those objects are both good and bad. For instance, there is a close up look at a butterfly egg and at a highly bendable material that–as narrator Forest Whitaker notes–could one day be used to build the long talked about elevator to space. On another level, there’s a note of the bumpy microscopic surface of a lily pad which could be used as a model to keep planes’ wings from icing over one day. To these extents, the things that we can’t see become that much more incredible. And they make for an especially welcome starting point for just such a discussion, again, in a science class at any level. On the other side of the discussion is a microscopic look at some not so nice objects such as head lice and even a mite that lives on people’s eyelashes. It’s unsettling but so intriguing that one can’t help but look. And it’s one more way that the content presented in Mysteries of the Unseen World makes this documentary worth the watch whether in the living room or the classroom. Coupled with the film’s run time and pacing, the content adds even more punch to the whole, making it that much more of a must have at least for any science teacher and lover of science in general.
The run time and pacing of Mysteries of the Unseen World taken into consideration with the overall content and its arrangement makes collectively for more than enough reason for audiences to check out the new documentary from National Geographic. While the noted elements are each equally important to the whole that is Mysteries of the Unseen World, there is still one more element to note of the film that should be noted that makes it a worth the watch. The element in question is the very fact that the documentary has been presented in a 2D/3D Blu-ray combo pack. The 2D/3D Blu-ray combo pack obviously presents the documentary both in its 2D presentation and enhanced 3D presentation. Those that have the necessary equipment to take in the 3D presentation will see for themselves just how amazing the microscopic world and the smaller world in whole look. It is the finishing touch to a documentary that along with its overall content, run time, and pacing shows to be a surprisingly fun and entertaining piece for audiences of all ages.
Mysteries of the Unseen World is available now in stores and online. The 2D/3D combo pack can be ordered online direct from Virgil Films’ online store and National Geographic’s online store. More information on this and other titles from Virgil Films is available online at:
Website: http://www.virgilfilmsent.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VirgilFilms
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